Businesses won't have to return BP spill payouts

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/09/25/3397798/businesses-wont-have-to-return.html?sp=/99/261/



FILE - In this June 15, 2010 file photo, a member of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's staff reaches into thick oil on the surface of the northern regions of Barataria Bay in Plaquemines Parish, La. A federal judge for Gulf of Mexico oil spill cases heard arguments Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, in New Orleans, about whether BP PLC should get back hundreds of millions of dollars from businesses that got settlement payments between August 2012 and October 2013.

Businesses won't have to return BP spill payouts
By JANET MCCONNAUGHEY and JONATHAN FAHEY
The Associated Press
September 25, 2014 Updated 13 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge has ruled that BP must stand by the agreement made with the companies it compensated for losses after the 2010 Gulf oil spill despite the oil giant saying some claims were overestimated.

BP argued that a flawed funding formula enabled nearly 800 businesses to overestimate their spill-related claims.

One construction company hundreds of miles from the coast received $13.2 million, but deserved $4.8 million at most, BP said. Another company selling "animals and animal skins" was overpaid about $14 million, and about 50 others shouldn't have been paid at all, the company said.

About 150 claimants should return a total of $185 million, and overpayments to the rest haven't been calculated, attorney Kevin Downey argued.

[Nihil]

1. Shame about that ... $185M could have helped a lot of ordinary people ...

Remember that when there are complaints about the compensation well "running dry" ...